I Spy Ramance: Kushina Meets Minato
by NotAGunForHire
Summary: Like many life-changing moments, it began with ramen. The story of how Minato and Kushina meet. Minato, Kushina, and their generation are all Chunin, ranging in age from 16-19. KushinaMinato & others
1. Chapter 1: Waters Start to Churn

**Author's Note:**

Hey, people! Thanks for giving my little story a chance. This is my first attempt at fanfiction, so I hope it goes well. I've got the storyline planned out all the way to the end, all that's left is turning a sequence of events and notes like "Oro shows up & knocks them out & does creepy research on them" into an actual narrative.

You might notice that my OC's all have one of their names taken from the manga "Mahou Sensei Negima" by Ken Akamatsu. In the case where it is their first (given) name, their appearance also resembles that character, but at the age I specify. This isn't a crossover fic, I'm just lazy with naming. Ex. Takamichi Sarutobi looks like an 18-year old version of Takamichi Takahata, who is in his thirties. I hope you'll excuse my laziness.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Mahou Sensei Negima, their universes, or their respective characters. Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto, and Ken Akamatsu owns Negima. I barely even own my own soul (its rent-to-own).

**Chapter One: The Waters Start to Churn**

Ominous gray clouds rolled overhead, driven by the ever-present wind blowing in from the sea. Asakura Uzumaki sat behind her cluttered desk gazing out the large window. Asakura was a slender woman in her mid-thirties who's presence didn't so much dominate a room as subtly control it. She fashioned her medium-length red hair up in a way that somewhat resembled a pineapple's leaves, wearing business attire that complimented her figure while remaining appropriate for a person of her rank. Watching the storm clouds outside, she recalled afternoons and evenings long ago when she and her late husband would watch the storm clouds roll in. Negi Uzumaki shared with her, along with their emerald eyes, an almost perverse fascination with thunderstorms, and they would often camp on some deserted beach and watch the clouds. Remembering those days reminded her of how much she missed him, and how much she hated the bastards who killed him.

(Flashback)

The Whirlpool Council of Elders had summoned her abruptly the day Negi's body was returned to the village. Taking her four-year old daughter with her to the administration building, she entered the council's chamber alone when informed that she was to be told the circumstances of her husband's death.

"Please take a seat, Asakura-san," the head councilor said. "We've called you here to inform you that your husband, the Champion of Vortex, was indeed murdered by foreign shinobi."

Lowering her head and averting her gaze for a moment, she looked back with a steely expression that just managed to conceal her sorrow. "Do we have any clues as to who did this, or what their motives are?"

"We have reason to believe Konoha shinobi are responsible, judging by the design of the kunai and shuriken found at the scene. As for Konoha's motive, we have no leads. The council has decided that the best course of action, given the size and power of Konohagakure relative to our own, and the necessity of our alliance with them, is to take no retaliatory action, and keep secret our knowledge of their involvement."

Gritting her teeth, she concurred that this is the logical choice.

(End Flashback)

The council of the Whirlpool village held a great deal of power in policymaking and civilian affairs, granting the Champion authority over these matters only in times of severe crisis. The Champion of Vortex had nowhere near the authority over his or her village as a Kage had over theirs. The Champion was the top-ranking military and law enforcement official, but the council trumped his authority in any situation that afforded the time and opportunity for their deliberation.

She had been chosen by the village jounin to succeed Negi as Champion the next week, likely because of the deadly reputation she had earned before the birth of her daughter. Twelve years had passed since then, and she had always wanted to send a shinobi into Konoha undercover to further investigate Negi's death, but the council had always opposed her. Alienating potential allies was something the tiny coastal nation couldn't afford, especially since their next nearest neighbor, the Land of Water, had always harbored ambitions of adding Whirlpool's territory to its own in order to gain a foothold on the mainland. The Land of Fire, and Konohagakure in particular, had always been an ally and it was mostly this alliance that kept the Water country in check.

However, the council had authorized her request this time around, since the new Mizukage was on friendly terms with Whirlpool's Daimyo and their threat had diminished. They had signed off on a purely fact-finding mission to uncover more about the events twelve years previous. Asakura had the perfect candidate in mind for the mission: her now sixteen-year old daughter. She was an accomplished chunin who Asakura had personally trained in ninjutsu and espionage. Kushina Uzumaki was more than pleased to carry out the investigation, given her personal connection to the case.

At this moment, the somewhat impatient Vortex Champion was waiting on her rebellious daughter to show up for her final briefing before leaving on the mission.

'God, I hope she's late because she was preparing for the mission, and not playing in the rain like last time! How many times have I told her that deflecting raindrops using chakra does NOT count as suiton training!'

Just then, a suspiciously dry and umbrella-less read-head burst into the office, having obviously just ran the entire distance from home. Kushina shared her hair color and length with her mother, but wore it down, flaring at her shoulders with strands framing her face. She had an ample figure which she clothed more modestly than most kunoichi her age, but still with a healthy dose of seductive charm.

"Hey, Mom! Am I late?" Kushina asked with a nervous grin.

Asakura gives her a cold stare, then responds, "Significantly. You were supposed to be here an hour ago."

"Oops?"

With a sigh, Asakura continued, "Your cover for this mission is as a civilian scholar in political science who is doing research at the Konoha hall of records and library. Records pertaining to shinobi activities should be located in a restricted area of one of those buildings, so you will have to find a way around the restrictions. Once you find something, send a coded message back via messenger falcon and await further orders."

"What should I do if I have an opportunity to kill the bastard or bastards who murdered Dad?" Kushina asked after a moment of thought.

After glancing at the door, Asakura responded in a hushed tone, "The council wouldn't stand for overt action, but if this person posed a threat to your life the council would have to forgive you if you 'accidentally' caused this person's death while defending yourself."

"Gotcha."

"If you don't have anymore questions, you're dismissed and may leave immediately for Konoha. Good luck, Kushina!" she said with a small but warm smile.

And with that, the two women parted, Asakura returning to her paperwork and Kushina heading back to finish packing for her "research trip."

**(A/N)**

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review to tell me how I'm doing. Does everything seem plausible? Do I fail at descriptions of the characters? Does this font make me look fat? Are you looking forward to some Minato X Kushina romance?

-NaGfH


	2. Chapter 2: Dango for Breakfast Club

**Author's Note: **

Hey my awesome readers! I'm a few days later than I'd planned on the update, but good news is this week is Thanksgiving break for me, so hopefully I'll get more of this story hammered out in that time. Without further ado, here's chapter two!

**Disclaimer: **

I do not own Naruto. I do not own Mahou Sensei Negima. I do not own any money, so don't sue me.

**Chapter 2: The Dango-for-Breakfast Club**

The morning sun peeked through the space between buildings as Reiko Nagase walked the streets of Konoha on her way to her favorite dango place. The nineteen-year-old kunoichi's raven-colored hair fell to her shoulder blades in the back, with bangs nearly reaching her eyebrows. Her light brown eyes had a tendency to stare into space sometimes as if she were deep in thought. She wore a black chunin vest over a burgundy, sleeveless v-neck shirt that left exposed her midriff and displayed some cleavage, along with a matching burgundy skirt with mesh stockings and black knee-high boots.

Today was Tuesday, the designated "Dango Breakfast Club" meeting day. The club consisted of Reiko and her three friends Shizune Tatsumiya, Anko Mitarashi, and Nodoka Hatake. The tradition dated back to their genin days, when they formed the club to celebrate being the four kunoichi instructed by the sanin. Shizune and Nodoka had been taught by Tsunade, Nodoka having since quit field work and in favor of joining the hospital's permanent staff of medic nin. Nodoka's most noticeable feature was that her violet bangs completely concealed her eyes, prompting people to wonder how the shy girl could still see. Anko, the president of the club despite being three years younger than the rest, was the prodigy of Team Orochimaru and held a great deal of respect for her sensei. Reiko herself was the female member of Team Jiraya, and as such was always on guard for his perverted stunts.

"There you are, Reiko!" exclaimed Anko as Reiko entered the restaurant. "We were just discussing your teammates."

"Oh?"

"You should be able to settle this for us," said Nodoka. "Who do you think is hotter? Hiashi or Minato?"

"Anko says Minato is hotter, but I think its Hiashi," said Shizune.

The two male chunin of Team Jiraya couldn't be much different when it came to non-shinobi matters. Minato Namikaze was the heartthrob of every female between twelve and fifteen with his golden hair in medium length spikes that fall casually over his ears in the absence of his hitai-ate. Along with his charming blue eyes and trademark grin, he also had a large, rabid fan club. He had been the class clown in his academy days and it remained in his jovial, comic nature. He was also becoming known as a prodigy at jutsu creation, having invented the A-ranked rasengan at just fourteen. In the three years since he had invented a number of other lower level jutsu and was working unsuccessfully at making a fuuton rasengan.

Hiashi Hyuuga was the heir of the powerful Hyuuga clan, and a prodigy praised by just about everyone in Konoha. He had the trademark long black hair and cold nearly white eyes of the Hyuugas, and his repertoire of jutsu didn't extend much past his clan techniques and basic ninjutsu. He did know more non-clan jutsu than most Hyuuga, causing their elders to be wary of him and view him as a bit of a rebel. His status, skills, and moderately handsome looks had earned him a fan club of his own.

Back to the girls' conversation, Reiko asked with a suspicious expression, "Why couldn't Nodoka break the tie?"

"She claimed some bullshit excuse about how she only has eyes for her 'Taka-kun,' and has lost the ability to judge other guys' hotness," Anko replied.

'Bullshit indeed! I know she has opinions on male hotness! She just wanted to put the pressure on me!' thought Reiko.

'I'm so bad, putting the heat on Reiko-chan when I know perfectly well which I'd prefer!' thought Nodoka. 'But that girl's got to be into one of those studs, and if she doesn't make a move soon, somebody else will beat her to it. Unless she's ... nah, couldn't be!'

"C'mon, Reiko, spill it!" prodded Anko.

"You girls have no clue! If you knew those two screw-ups as well as I do, you wouldn't be fawning over them like you are now!" Reiko said forcefully in an attempt at defending herself. 'Nice save,' she thought. 'Now they'll want examples of secret flaws!'

True to Reiko's prediction, Shizune asked, "What kind of dirty secrets do they have that could possibly disrupt their studliness?"

'Shit, think of something quick!' "Minato is, uhhh... as big a pervert as Jiraya-sensei! And Hiashi, umm... Hiashi likes men!"

Upon hearing this, Shizune nearly choked on her dango, Anko sprayed soda out her nose, and Nodoka blushed, trying not to bust a gut laughing.

'Yup, she must have a crush on one of them,' thought Nodoka.

'If only things were so simple,' lamented Reiko silently.

'This is grade-A material for my next book!" thought the Jiraya shadow clone that had spied on the whole conversation. 'I was hoping they would go to the onsen, but this is even better! I'll have to tease Reiko about this later!' he thought before poofing away.

**A/N:**

I hope you liked! Just so you know I only used Tatsumiya as Shizune's last name because her real name is never revealed. Another Negima name, I know. Nodoka is supposed to be Kakashi's older cousin in this story, that's why her last name is Hatake. An onsen, in case you didn't know, is a hot springs resort/spa. Dango is a Japanese dumpling, often sweet.

Review or you will be hunted down by rabid squirrels! Seriously!

-NaGfH


	3. Chapter 3: Leaves Begin to Fall

**Author's Note:**

Yay, I got another chapter done over Thanksgiving break just like I hoped! I really had fun with this one. Without meaning to, I started making Minato's and Hiashi's relationship resemble Naruto's and Sasuke's relationship. This really isn't right, since Hiashi isn't full of angst and Minato isn't an orphan or an outcast.

About my use of italics, I'll write any Japanese words or jutsu names that I think you might not be familiar with in italics the first time I use them, and a note at the end will define them. After the first use, I'll write it normally.

I've decided to just put the lemons in this story and just mark them off clearly. I've changed the rating on the story to M to reflect this change of plans.

**Disclaimer:**

I do not own Naruto, Mahou Sensei Negima, or any of their characters. My OC's do belong to me.

**Chapter 3: The Leaves Begin to Fall**

That same morning at roughly the same time as the Dango club's meeting, the teens in question were training in the forest just outside the village. As was typical of their sparring matches, Minato was keeping out of range of Hiashi's _Hakke Rokujūyon Shō_ and taunting Hiashi while launching half-hearted long-range _fuuton_ jutsu to provoke him. Hiashi for his part was pursuing Minato, trying to get in range, while barely managing to maintain his cool, indifferent, Hyuuga-like attitude.

"Ha ha! What's wrong, Hiashi? Can't keep up?" taunted Minato.

"Why are you running away? Are you afraid of me?" said Hiashi with a smirk that came across as frustrated rather than smug as he had intended it.

"If I were running away you wouldn't keep up. Everyone knows I'm faster than you!"

At this point a shadow clone of Minato popped out of the ground behind Hiashi, throwing a handful of shuriken sharpened and accelerated by wind chakra. Thanks to his byakugan's range of vision, Hiashi easily saw the attack coming and the shuriken bounced harmlessly off of his _kaiten_.

'I have to figure out how he hides those clones from my byakugan for so long. It shouldn't be possible!' Hiashi thought as he threw a kunai through his spinning chakra shield and into the clone, dispelling it.

Just as Hiashi stopped spinning, he saw, almost too late, the real Minato charging him with a rasengan in his outstretched hand. Hiashi had just enough time to parry the attack so that it grazed his shoulder rather than slamming into his chest. Gripping Minato's left wrist, rasengan still spinning in his hand, Hiashi quickly jabbed three _tenketsu _in Minato's arm, killing the rasengan and causing his wrist to hang limp once he broke Hiashi's grip.

"Damn you, white eyes! Why does rasengan have to be so vulnerable to _Jyuuken_?" Minato jokingly yelled as their match ended by unspoken agreement. "Why I oughta ... Ha-chooo! kick your pampered ass into ... Haaa-chooo!! next week! Damn, I only sneeze like that when the girls are talking about me," reflected Minato out loud.

"That must be a terrible problem to have," commented Hiashi. "To answer your question, rasengan depends on a steady stream of chakra in large quantities. Closing even one tenketsu in the arm makes it harmless, three kills it ... Aahhh-Choo! completely. And what makes you think you could ... Aaaahhhh-Chooooo! ever beat me?"

"Uh-oh, if we're both sneezing all of a sudden, there are only three possible reasons: We both caught a cold, someone's developed an allergen jutsu, or the girls are talking about both of us," concluded Minato.

That last possibility brought back painfully embarrassing memories from the previous spring that both shinobi were trying to forget.

(Flashback to last spring)

Team Jiraya was on a mission that brought them to the Fire Capitol, a bustling metropolis that dwarfed _Konohagakure _in size and cultural affluence. As the four walked along the busy streets, a headline caught Hiashi's eye at a newsstand they passed. His shock was so great he stopped in his tracks, mouth agape.

"What's the deal?" asked Reiko before following his gaze to the offending article. Laughing hysterically, she ran over and bought four copies of the tabloid causing all the ruckus. "Sensei, check this out! Its about Hiashi and Minato!"

"Oh, what's this?" asked Jiraya, chuckling. Minato saw the article at this point, and promptly adopted a similar pose as Hiashi.

The headline read, "Hyuuga Heir More Than Friends with Male Teammate," and featured a close-up of Minato and Hiashi entwined in each other's arms and joined at the lips.

Being the first to recover, Minato began to adamantly deny the truthfulness of the article. "Th-this photo is obviously doctored! That must be it, they don't care at all about facts, only sales!"

"Either the photo is fake, or you've been making out with Hizashi," concluded Hiashi after regaining his cool exterior.

"I believe you, but the truth isn't important to all the _yaoi_ artists and authors that will inevitably elaborate on this," said Reiko. "You'll never live this down!"

(End flashback)

The boys shuttered with embarrassment and disgust at the memory. Before the article, they had been openly friendly despite their intense rivalry, but since then they had made a conscious effort not to hang out together too often. Following in this trend, the two split up for lunch, Minato heading for his favorite ramen stand while Hiashi returned to the Hyuuga compound and its skilled chefs.

Kushina nearly slammed the book shut that she had been reading before brusquely shoving it aside in frustration. Her search for the Konoha library's records for clues about her father was proving to be a challenging task indeed. All the records she found on shinobi activities were confined to accounts of wartime bravery or successful diplomatic missions. Obviously the information she was looking for wouldn't be in these types of records.

As she was about to get up from her chair in the library to get another book, the rumbling in her stomach reminded her that she hadn't yet eaten lunch. In the previous week she had successfully infiltrated the village, posing as a civilian, and rented a small apartment not far from the library. She had eaten her lunch of cup ramen and potato chips back at her apartment the previous days, but the anxiety from her unfruitful search put her in the mood for something a little more tasty today. Of course, that meant a ramen stand (she's a major ramen-iac).

The closest ramen stand to the library was one run by a man named Ichiraku. As she approached the busy establishment, she noticed a blonde guy around her age having an enthusiastic conversation with the proprietor, using overly dramatic hand gestures. She also noticed that the only empty chair at the bar was beside this flailing young man. Reluctantly she took this seat and ordered when the chef came to her. She halfway listened to the blonde's conversation, if only because his volume made it impossible not to.

Her mouth watered excessively when her pork ramen was brought to her. Just as she was about to pick up her chopsticks and dig in, one of the exuberant blonde's hand gestures sent her bowl flying towards her, spilling all along her chest and landing in her lap.

"Sorry!" apologized Minato to an irate and ramen-covered Kushina. Thus went their first meeting.

**A/N:**

And so they meet! This meeting place might have been predictable from the title of the story, but I still got a kick out of writing Minato's klutzy first impression with Kushina. I also relished writing Hiashi and Minato's yaoi rumors. These are completely unfounded, of course. Until next time, folks!

Word definitions:

_Hakke Rokujuuyon Sho:_ Eight trigrams sixty-four palms, according to the official English translation. I hate that name, though, so I will always refer to this and other Hyuuga moves by their Japanese names. This is the move where they hit 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, then 64 tenketsu in rapid succession.

_Fuuton:_ Wind release, or wind style. Its the thing they always say before using a wind jutsu. It's counterparts for other elements are katon for fire, suiton for water, raiton for lightning, doton for earth, and mokuton for wood (which only the 1st hokage and Yamato can use).

_Kaiten:_ Heavenly spin, shortened from _Hakkesho Kaiten_, which is eight trigrams palms heavenly spin. Another English translation that I hate, and I feel the Hakkesho part is unnecessary so I'll always call this move kaiten. The user spins while releasing chakra from all their tenketsu, blocking attacks. In my story, this move creates a slight vulnerability in that the user can't see very well through their own chakra shield, and it makes them dizzy.

_Tenketsu: _Chakra point or points. Lol that I've already used this word in two of the previous definitions, but I'm going in order of appearance. This is one where I'll probably switch back and forth between the English and Japanese, but I'll try to stay consistent. These points are where a ninja can release chakra.

_Jyuuken:_ Gentle fist. This is the Hyuuga's fighting style that makes use of their byakugan's ability to see tenketsu and the chakra circulatory system. It uses bursts of chakra from the fingertips or palms when striking the opponent to close the tenketsu or deal general damage to the chakra circulatory system. Its called gentle because the strikes aren't that hard and wouldn't hurt much without the chakra bursts.

_Konohagakure:_ The hidden leaf village. There are several related words that mean slightly different things. Konoha just means leaf and is used to refer to the ninja village sometimes, with the emphasis on the ninja part. Konohagakure I just defined. It is used to refer to the village itself, especially the civilian aspects of it. Konohagakure no sato means village hidden among the leaves. This is specifically for the ninja aspect of the village.

_Yaoi:_ You should already know what this means if you're going to read the lemons. If not, let me warn you so you can stay away from this...unpleasantness. It means homosexual male hentai. Hentai is anime/manga porn. The lesbian version is yuri, which I have less of a problem with. There will be no yaoi in this fanfic. Just so you know, shounen-ai is basically a synonym of yaoi, but isn't necessarily sexual, as is shoujo-ai a less erotic synonym of yuri.

I hope this has been educational! The fight scene in this chapter is my first ever, so feel free to criticize. It was really just a warm-up to test if I have any ability in fight scenes.

Review!!!! Or there will be blood! Mostly yours! If I don't get at least 10 reviews a character in my story will get herpes! Just kidding, but seriously review!


	4. Chapter 4: A Ramen Showdown

**Author's Note:**

Okay, good news everyone! I found my magical notebook and it had half of chapter 4 written already! Here goes nothing!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Naruto, Mahou Sensei Negima, or anything else.

**Chapter 4: A Ramen Showdown**

"Sorry!" apologized Minato to an irate and ramen-covered Kushina.

Looking down at her soaked clothes, then at Minato, then back to her clothes, Kushina did her best to contain her fury. Minato was a Konoha shinobi, and she knew that throttling him would draw undue attention and might even blow her cover. That's why she was somewhat surprised when she realized that she had already lifted Minato off his feet by the neck of his shirt and was about to begin a beat down.

Instead of punching him in the face, Kushina dropped Minato and said in a commanding voice, "Stay there while I go change clothes! When I come back, you're going to treat me to all the ramen I can eat! Sound fair?"

"Y-yes ma'am!" Minato responded, somewhat timidly

When Kushina returned ten minutes later, she had calmed down somewhat. Her mood now was one of dark joy from her acquisition of a temporary slave. The slave (Minato), on the other hand, had only grown more anxious while waiting on his red-haired tormentor to return.

"You'd better be loaded, because I'm about to eat you out of house and home! I am the biggest ramen enthusiast to ever live!" said Kushina with an evil grin.

"I doubt it," Minato said quietly.

"What was that, blondie?"

Thirty minutes later, they both had huge stacks of empty bowls in front of them and were still inhaling ramen at an unhealthy rate. Their little eating competition had drawn a crowd of onlookers drawn in by the loud slurping. The betting began after each had finished their fourth bowl. An Akamichi bet 1000 Ryo on Minato, based on his memories of Minato's six-bowl lunches. A Nara who had seen the incident from the beginning took that bet, explaining "The girl has anger on her side, and I never bet against an angry female."

By seven bowls in, the crowd had doubled in size, engulfing the ramen stand in a mob of assorted people with noting better to do with their lunch breaks. Ichiraku, the owner of the stand, relished the attention these two youngsters were attracting. Or, he would have if he wasn't totally absorbed in cooking all that ramen! Nine bowls in, and the contestants were showing signs of satiation. The crowd couldn't comprehend where these slim teenagers were keeping all of that ramen.

Minato knew he could take three more bowls at least, but his motivation to win was lacking and he was increasingly aware that he was paying for both of them. Reluctantly, he stopped after his tenth bowl and admitted defeat.

"Ha, I owned your ass, blondie!" taunted Kushina. Beat you down like a circus clown! And remember, you're paying!

As she was about to walk away through the quickly thinning crowd, she heard the blonde shinobi's voice calling her back. "Can I at least get your name, miss? Mine is Minato by the way."

"I'm Kushina. Pleased to meet you, Minato."

"Hopefully our next meeting will be under more pleasant circumstances."

"Whatever," said Kushina as she walked away.

Minato couldn't help noticing how her toned backside moved through her spandex shorts as she walked away, but quickly chastised himself for his lewd thoughts. 'Watch it, Minato! Don't want to become like Jiraya-sensei! If only there was a jutsu to control hormones,' he thought. But not even the jutsu-creating genius of his generation had the cajones to manipulate chakra in his, erm, cajones.

'I wonder if Hiashi's clan has any techniques of that nature?' With that thought came the mental image of his male teammate getting off with a chakra-infused hand. So naturally Minato beat himself over the head with his shoe until the image was gone.


End file.
